Assessment methods

Formal assessment takes many forms and your progress is monitored in a number of different ways. By employing these different methods, we gain a much better understanding of your abilities as a physicist than we could ever hope to achieve if we used only a single method of assessment.

Examinations

A large proportion (roughly 70%) of your overall assessment will come from formal examinations. Examinations that contribute to the final assessment of BSc students may take place in the second or third term of Years 2 and 3. Additionally, MPhys students take examinations at the beginning of the Summer term of Year 4.

Continuous assessment

It is usually the case that weekly exercises accompany each lecture course within the programme. This engages you in the material and often requires application of both the knowledge you have gained from the course as well as researched material to completely solve the problems, encouraging you to read around a subject.

The vast majority of modules are assessed in this way alongside the examination, with the weekly problems making up 15% of the module mark. The remaining 85% is obtained from the examination score for that particular module.

Laboratory work

All physics students will partake in practical experimental laboratory work, with Theoretical Physics students concentrating on computational work as the programme progresses. The weekly marks obtained from lab work have a small contribution to the overall assessment of the Experimental Labratory modules. However, the majority of marks are given for the quality of the formal report produced on a particular investigation performed during the module.

Skills

The Skills modules are assessed using a multitude of methods, ranging from presentations and essays to mathematical computer programs produced by you and saved to CD-ROMs. This allows us, as a department, to fully assess a wide range of your abilities.

Mark scale and yearly weightings

Below is the University Mark Scale, which defines the relationship between the marks awarded to students' assessments, and the Honours Degree Classification.

Degree Awarded Mark
First Class Honours
70 - 100%
Upper Second Class Honours
60 - 69%
Lower Second Class Honours
50 - 59%
Third Class Honours
40 - 49%
Fail
0 - 39%

The following weights are assigned to the work of each year when arriving at the final Degree assessment.

Yearly Weightings (%)
Year
BSc
MPhys
1
0
0
2
40
25
3
60
37.5
4

37.5

Prizes

The Founders' Prizes are awarded annually for the best overall performances in the BSc and MPhys programmes.

The Goodwin Prizes are awarded annually for the best final year project in the BSc and MPhys programmes. Both content and presentation are taken into account.